Nightlife

Aaah-AAAHHHhhhh! The Weekly finally nabbed an interview with elusive DJ/producer Felix da Housecat. Before the jubilant, larger-than-life personality took control of the tables for his new Las Vegas residency The Cat’s Meow at Jet Monday night, we caught up with him backstage for a few side-splitting musings on parachutes, truth juice and giving it to them real.

How Felix handles pressure and being nervous (as his sips from a flask):

I’m on this little truth juice ‘cause my nerves is raging. Not to say you gotta hit the truth juice ‘cause you can’t handle the pressure — I’m good under pressure, I’m am like a beast, a monster under pressure — but I don’t want to fail. I wanna do good for my man DG [David Gutierrez, Vice President of Marketing for the Light Group at the Mirage] and the people of Vegas. ... When my back’s against the wall, when a brother’s back against the wall, he will claw his way out. I’m telling you, he will make a paddle out of a toothpick in the ocean to make it to the land.

It’s like we just jump out the plane with no parachute, and then we just let it go at the last second. So you’re going to experience the same thing I’m going to experience, which is — I don’t know until we’re all there together to be honest.

But, the vibe and everything with the whole circus and the theatrics and all that beautiful stuff... you can expect what I expect, which is something that’s gonna be so beautiful, magical crazy, insane. Every type of genre, it’s gonna be insanity.

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You’re gonna see some cool — I can’t say the “S” word because I’m not in Europe — you’re gonna see some cool stuff.

Felix describes his work relationship with Gutierrez:

He’s like my DJ caddy for Vegas. He makes sure I stay on course. I ain’t trying to be like Tiger: “C’mon through, sweetheart, come on through. This is live and direct, don’t worry. Wave at the camera, if you want. OK, don’t be shy. We don’t die; we multiply.”

What Felix wanted to be when he grew up:

I didn’t want to DJ; I didn’t want to make music. My father made me do it. (Laughing.) He didn’t make me DJ, he made me make music. ... I was going to be, like, some artist doing cartoons and directing science-fiction movies, that’s what I wanted to do. And I just took something and ran with it and it became fun.

What he thinks about club music in Vegas:

Vegas is a big city, but sometimes acts come in and they play a little watered-down, and they need that dirty, dirty. You know? They need that. But at the same time I play the sexy stuff for the ladies, too. Not saying that the ladies don’t get dirty — cause they do — but you understand what I’m saying.

Me, personally as a DJ, I just want for the people who can’t fly to Chicago or New York or go to Ibiza or Berlin, or London or whatever, if they can’t get on a plane or they can’t afford to go over there, I want to bring that to them here. I’m sure they hear a lot of other DJs come here, but one thing about me that’s different, I don’t bite my tongue if you’ve noticed. (Laughing.) It’s the same with playing. It’s just like I want them to feel everything full-on. So I kinda want to bring that to them. I want to show them why I’m booked to play overseas, these other spots and bring it here without having to water it down. I’ve got to give it to them real.